Reine #39: Carabiner – A Love Letter

Carabiner: A Love Letter by Rea Strapp, in blue a box of carabiners linked together in a chain
In a two panel comic, colored in shades of blue and white: A drawing of a Carabiner with keys on it, alongside the following text: AH, THE RING OF . I. *KEYS$: CLASSICI ICONIC!! DYKEY AS HELL !!! Nest to it is says "Sister to the Bisexual Lanyard, the Carabiner is one of a FLOURSHING ECOSYSTEM of Queer Expression"
In a three panel comic, two queers walk towards the parking lot. One says, "unlock the car?" and the next one says "Uh.. I think you have a my keys" and then the first one laughs it off, "Oh yeah!"
In a three panel comic, two queer friends have on N95 masks. One friend asks the other, "Can I see your carabiner?" and the other friend says "Sure!" And there's a clacking of two carabiners together. The friend admits, "Oh yeah, I'm dog sitting for a friend"
In a three panel comic, two queers are wearing N95 masks and meeting each other for the first time. One says, "excuse me? what is on your carabiner?" The other responds, "oh an apparatus to help give CPR to kids!" and the first queer gives a thumbs up, "We are truly prepared for anything! Cool."
A huge group of queers all are standing together, wearing varieties of clothing and n95 masks. Above them the caption reads "Sitting at the Zine Symposiom, I am struck by all the fashion! Matching and Flaggins, is this true love?"

Tell me what weird things you carry on your key rings!

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Ren Strapp

Ren Strapp is a comic artist, designer, and gender nonconforming lesbian werewolf. Her work is inspired by risograph printing and American traditional tattooing. She loves weight lifting and hiking. Support her work on Patreon.

Ren has written 70 articles for us.

17 Comments

  1. I describe my key ring as “outdoors queer”. It’s a water proof flint striker with some jangly rainbow hearts on it.

  2. One key to my electric bike and ulock. One key to my car. 1 key to the apartment I rent from my ex: never used, we don’t lock it. One key to a high hazard dam gate in case of emergency. 1 key to my office, one to my boss’s. One key to an anarchist collective house in a city an hour away.
    In storage: a key to my parents house, across the country.

    • Wow! What’s a hazard dam gate?! That sounds super hardcore!!!! Must be one helluva carabiner!!!

  3. My keyring always has earplugs on it (in a wee case) in case I spontaneously go to a gig which honestly rarely happens. But I’m prepared if it did!

  4. genuine question: what carabiner accessory do you need to give cpr?? a hitclips that plays stayin alive by the bee gees?

  5. I didn’t know lanyards were bisexual, I guess that’s why I have a Super Mario lanyard! I have my home keys, my best friend’s home, my car key, a keyring I made of my name and a beautiful elephant keyring from my partner.

    • Haha
      “High Hazard Potential is a classification standard for any dam whose failure or mis-operation will cause loss of human life and significant property destruction”

      I work for the municipal entity that owns the dam, and have the key to the fence around the apparatus to raise or lower it

      If I’m ever the one doing that we’re all in trouble though. Usually the DPW takes care of it thankfully

  6. No matter how much of a femme lesbian I claim to be, I still have my keys on a carabiner. Just easy to add and remove sets. And it adds some bulk so it’s easier to fund my keys. It has one ring with my appartment and mailbox keys. My bicycle keys. Occasionally my bicyle lights. Hair ties. An emergency whistle. (Bought more for wilderness emergencies, but it’s always on there.) And a keychain that my brother once bought for me saying “once I was a tomboy but now I’m a full-grown lesbian” that I’ve had for like a decade.

  7. Sigh… Oh, carabiners, is there anything you can’t do? I have one, albeit a rather flimsy one, on my work keys right now as we speak. Or I guess I have my work keys on a carabiner. My employers give certain staff members keys to the door alarms, and I am one of them. The employers put one of those elastic coiled plastic thingys that can go on your wrist on all the door alarm keys before issueing them. I didn’t remove it, since it doesn’t belong to me, and it makes it faster to tell which of the three identical keys will turn off the alarm when someone has set it off. I’m a tomboy femme and thus very practical. Also an avid outdoors person and former dog walker. Used to have an enormous ring of keys! I digress. I have a rant about my keys and their carabiner. Surpise! It’s about sexism. The building manager had to fix my lock and asked for my keys and then despite my keys having no other thing on them but the carabiner and that elastic thingy that can go around your wrist, he scoffed and said, “Women and keys…” I got so furious! Back me up, here – WTF is up with that shit? Like people don’t have the right to put a bunch of other stuff they like attached to their keys to help them find their keys?!?!? And that those people are always women?!? Sometimes I just can’t stand having to deal with cishet men for any reason whatsoever. I used to really enjoy talking to this person, he’s really funny and helpful. But I’m so pissed off about this stupid sexist comment! I grew up in the 1970’s when men constantly said shit like, “Women drivers!” and “You’re beautiful when you’re angry…” and “What are you a women’s libber?” if I said anything. And here I thought I was going to have a bonding moment over the carabiner!

  8. My carabiner was stolen off a flag pole by a friend! Has a WTNV library key tag, bike key, car key, house key, one unknown skeleton key, a knife disguised as a key, another unknown key, key from my first car, key to my girlfriend’s car, and a beetle preserved in glow in the dark resin.

  9. 3d printed cat shaped brass knuckles, keys to work & a couple friends’ houses, library & ace hardware cards (on a big honkin silver carabiner) 😎

  11. My carabiner not only has all my keys, work IDs, and earbuds, it also has a built-in phone charger. Truly a modern survival tool.

  12. Was just brought back to this beautiful piece and comment section as my lovely but very straight mom, needing to borrow my car keys and taking them off my carabiner (also holding: house key, partner’s spare car key + PO box key, and KN94 mask), said “I always wondered what these ‘kerry-binner’ things were for!”

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